1. |
- Bécoulet, A., et al.
(author)
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Science and technology research and development in support to ITER and the Broader Approach at CEA
- 2013
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In: Nuclear Fusion. - : IOP Publishing. - 1741-4326 .- 0029-5515. ; 53:10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In parallel to the direct contribution to the procurement phase of ITER and Broader Approach, CEA has initiated research & development programmes, accompanied by experiments together with a significant modelling effort, aimed at ensuring robust operation, plasma performance, as well as mitigating the risks of the procurement phase. This overview reports the latest progress in both fusion science and technology including many areas, namely the mitigation of superconducting magnet quenches, disruption-generated runaway electrons, edge-localized modes (ELMs), the development of imaging surveillance, and heating and current drive systems for steady-state operation. The WEST (W Environment for Steady-state Tokamaks) project, turning Tore Supra into an actively cooled W-divertor platform open to the ITER partners and industries, is presented.
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2. |
- Maksimovic, M., et al.
(author)
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First observations and performance of the RPW instrument on board the Solar Orbiter mission
- 2021
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 656
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Radio and Plasma Waves (RPW) instrument on the ESA Solar Orbiter mission is designed to measure in situ magnetic and electric fields and waves from the continuum up to several hundred kHz. The RPW also observes solar and heliospheric radio emissions up to 16 MHz. It was switched on and its antennae were successfully deployed two days after the launch of Solar Orbiter on February 10, 2020. Since then, the instrument has acquired enough data to make it possible to assess its performance and the electromagnetic disturbances it experiences. In this article, we assess its scientific performance and present the first RPW observations. In particular, we focus on a statistical analysis of the first observations of interplanetary dust by the instrument's Thermal Noise Receiver. We also review the electro-magnetic disturbances that RPW suffers, especially those which potential users of the instrument data should be aware of before starting their research work.
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3. |
- Maksimovic, M., et al.
(author)
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The Solar Orbiter Radio and Plasma Waves (RPW) instrument
- 2020
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP SCIENCES S A. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 642
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Radio and Plasma Waves (RPW) instrument on the ESA Solar Orbiter mission is described in this paper. This instrument is designed to measure in-situ magnetic and electric fields and waves from the continuous to a few hundreds of kHz. RPW will also observe solar radio emissions up to 16 MHz. The RPW instrument is of primary importance to the Solar Orbiter mission and science requirements since it is essential to answer three of the four mission overarching science objectives. In addition RPW will exchange on-board data with the other in-situ instruments in order to process algorithms for interplanetary shocks and type III langmuir waves detections.
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4. |
- Vecchio, A., et al.
(author)
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Solar Orbiter/RPW antenna calibration in the radio domain and its application to type III burst observations
- 2021
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 656, s. A33-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Context. In order to allow for a comparison with the measurements from other antenna systems, the voltage power spectral density measured by the Radio and Plasma waves receiver (RPW) on board Solar Orbiter needs to be converted into physical quantities that depend on the intrinsic properties of the radiation itself (e.g., the brightness of the source). Aims. The main goal of this study is to perform a calibration of the RPW dipole antenna system that allows for the conversion of the voltage power spectral density measured at the receiver's input into the incoming flux density. Methods. We used space observations from the Thermal Noise Receiver (TNR) and the High Frequency Receiver (HFR) to perform the calibration of the RPW dipole antenna system. Observations of type III bursts by the Wind spacecraft are used to obtain a reference radio flux density for cross-calibrating the RPW dipole antennas. The analysis of a large sample of HFR observations (over about ten months), carried out jointly with an analysis of TNR-HFR data and prior to the antennas' deployment, allowed us to estimate the reference system noise of the TNR-HFR receivers. Results. We obtained the effective length, l(eff), of the RPW dipoles and the reference system noise of TNR-HFR in space, where the antennas and pre-amplifiers are embedded in the solar wind plasma. The obtained l(eff) values are in agreement with the simulation and measurements performed on the ground. By investigating the radio flux intensities of 35 type III bursts simultaneously observed by Wind and Solar Orbiter, we found that while the scaling of the decay time as a function of the frequency is the same for the Waves and RPW instruments, their median values are higher for the former. This provides the first observational evidence that Type III radio waves still undergo density scattering, even when they propagate from the source, in a medium with a plasma frequency that is well below their own emission frequency.
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5. |
- Charnock, Tom, et al.
(author)
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Neural physical engines for inferring the halo mass distribution function
- 2020
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In: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 494:1, s. 50-61
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- An ambitious goal in cosmology is to forward model the observed distribution of galaxies in the nearby Universe today from the initial conditions of large-scale structures. For practical reasons, the spatial resolution at which this can be done is necessarily limited. Consequently, one needs a mapping between the density of dark matter averaged over similar to Mpc scales and the distribution of dark matter haloes (used as a proxy for galaxies) in the same region. Here, we demonstrate a method for determining the halo mass distribution function by learning the tracer bias between density fields and halo catalogues using a neural bias model. The method is based on the Bayesian analysis of simple, physically motivated, neural network-like architectures, which we denote as neural physical engines, and neural density estimation. As a result, we are able to sample the initial phases of the dark matter density field while inferring the parameters describing the halo mass distribution function, providing a fully Bayesian interpretation of both the initial dark matter density distribution and the neural bias model. We successfully run an upgraded BORG (Bayesian Origin Reconstruction from Galaxies) inference using our new likelihood and neural bias model with halo catalogues derived from full N-body simulations. In preliminary results, we notice there could potentially be orders of magnitude improvement in modelling compared to classical biasing techniques.
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6. |
- Hillairet, J., et al.
(author)
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Recent progress on lower hybrid current drive and implications for ITER
- 2013
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In: Nuclear Fusion. - : IOP Publishing. - 1741-4326 .- 0029-5515. ; 53:7
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The sustainment of steady-state plasmas in tokamaks requires efficient current drive systems. Lower hybrid current drive is currently the most efficient method to generate a continuous additional off-axis toroidal plasma current and to reduce the poloidal flux consumption during the plasma current ramp-up phase. The operation of the Tore Supra ITER-like lower hybrid (LH) launcher has demonstrated the capability to couple LH power at ITER-like power densities with very low reflected power during long pulses. In addition, the installation of eight 700 kW/CW klystrons at the LH transmitter has allowed increasing the total LH power in long-pulse scenarios. However, in order to achieve pure stationary LH-sustained plasmas, some R&D is needed to increase the reliability of all the systems and codes, from radio-frequency (RF) sources to plasma scenario prediction. The CEA/IRFM is addressing some of these issues by leading a R&D programme towards an ITER LH system and by the validation of an integrated LH modelling suite of codes. In 2011, the RF design of a mode converter was validated at a low power. A 500 kW/5 s RF window is currently under manufacture and will be tested at a high power in 2012 in collaboration with the National Fusion Research Institute. All of this work aims to reduce the operational risks associated with the ITER steady-state operations.
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7. |
- Mukherjee, Suvodip, et al.
(author)
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Velocity correction for Hubble constant measurements from standard sirens
- 2021
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 646
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Gravitational wave (GW) sources are an excellent probe of the luminosity distance and o ffer a novel measure of the Hubble constant, H-0. This estimation of H-0 from standard sirens requires an accurate estimation of the cosmological redshift of the host galaxy of the GW source after correcting for its peculiar velocity. The absence of an accurate peculiar velocity correction a ffects both the precision and accuracy of the measurement of H-0, particularly for nearby sources. Here, we propose a framework to incorporate such a peculiar velocity correction for GW sources. A first implementation of our method to the event GW170817, combined with observations taken with Very Large Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), leads to a revised value of H-0 = 68.3(-4.5)(+4.6) km s(-1) Mpc(-1). While this revision is minor, it demonstrates that our method makes it possible to obtain unbiased and accurate measurements of H-0 at the precision required for the standard siren cosmology.
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